Cougars Three-Peat As SoCon Regular-Season Champions

DAVIDSON, N.C. - The College of Charleston men's tennis team defeated Davidson, 5-2, in its regular-season finale to three-peat as Southern Conference regular-season champions on Sunday afternoon at the Covington Tennis Courts.

The Cougars (15-4, 9-1 SoCon) locked up the No. 1 tournament seed in the upcoming 2012 SoCon Tennis Championships to be held on April 19-22 at the home facilities of The Citadel and CofC in Charleston, S.C. They tied Samford with a 9-1 record against league opponents, but held the tiebreaker with a 4-3 regular-season win over the Bulldogs on March 23.

CofC will enjoy a first-round bye and take on the winner of either No. 8-seeded Chattanooga or No. 9-seeded Davidson (7-13, 3-7 SoCon) in quarterfinal action to be held on Friday, April 20 at 8:30 a.m. (ET) at the CofC Tennis Center.

The Cougars took the early 1-0 advantage by claiming two of the three doubles matches behind an 8-6 victory courtesy of the No. 84-ranked duo of senior Mickael Trintignac (Le Cannet, France) and junior Kyle Parker (Richmond, Va.) over Davidson's Joe Schafer and Calum Gee at No. 1 and senior Tom Delme (Hamoir, Belgium) and junior Billy Kenny (Pawley's Island) sealing the doubles point with an 8-3 tally over Nicky Kunz and Chris Mark at No. 2.

Delme, Parker, Kenny and freshman Alon Faiman (Ramat Hasharon, Israel) were also winners in singles to contribute to the final team score. Delme won a third-set super tiebreaker over Chris Mark, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (6), at No. 2, Parker a three-set comeback against Nicky Kunz, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2, at No. 3, Faiman in straight sets versus Robert Lightbourn, 6-4, 6-2, at No. 5 and Kenny his first singles win of the season with a 6-4, 6-2 decision over Connor Evans at No. 6.

CofC tied Elon for the regular-season title with a 9-1 mark in 2011 and turned in a perfect SoCon 10-0 season for the first time in program history in 2010.